This page is dominated by Pro Action Football, which was
Subbuteo's big rival in the 1990s.

Cup Final (1980s)

This
was a rubbish
three-a-side version of Striker produced by Peter Pan Playthings, of Test Match
cricket fame. The layout of the rules, and some of the components made this look
like a companion game to their cricket game. Sadly, it was nowhere near as much
fun.

I picked up a few bits from one of these sets in
a second hand box of Subbuteo, and I can't say I was impressed. The pitch was
made of a
foamy substance that was shedding its coat alarmingly, and covered everything with bits of
green. I'm afraid it went in the bin. This is a problem shared by Peter Pan's
Test Match Cricket game. The goals are identical to Striker ones, but have
plastic nets.

The outfield players were plastic with a metal
kicking leg, with one player having a bent leg, and one a straight leg. The
straight legged player had a scooped foot for lobbing the ball, but I can't say
that this works very well. To make
the players different from Striker or Big League, the kicking was
controlled by a button on the back of the base.

The figures came in all
red
and all blue kits. The painting on the players was absolutely terrible, and probably worse
than most of the Big League players I have encountered. Using red and blue
plastic for the player and base would've been a better idea. The goalkeepers are
identical in design to the original Striker goalkeepers, as they swivel at the
waist and have a crooked arm for throwing the ball out.

The ball
was not round, but more of a honeycomb with 32 sides. These were divided into two halves
of different colours. In the rule book it says that the two halves are red and
blue, but this was not always the case (black and white was an alternative).
Basically, the team whose colour was on the top face had the right to play the
ball. So the skill was to always keep the top face in your colour while
dribbling. The rules also suggest that you can play with one player in each hand
for quick passing. This method of play is similar to German game Tipp-Kick.

Pro
Action Football (1990s)

This game remains a serious rival to Subbuteo, and was
really the first soccer game for some time to offer something different. The method of
play is very clever, and well thought out. Whisper this, but I've
heard several Subbuteo addicts admit that their kids prefer Pro-Action
football over Peter Adolph's glorious game.

This
is another game that uses magnetism to good effect, but here the magnetic effect
is between player and ball. Each player is mounted on a large green base that
glides around on a ball bearing (daleks somehow spring to mind). The base has a
magnetic ring to which the ball can affix. Thus the player can run with the
ball, and intercept passes by sliding onto the ball. Passing and shooting is
done by tapping on the top of the player. The top half of the base then moves
down, and the rims at the top and bottom of the base cause the ball to part from
the ring and be propelled away from the figure. It is sometimes difficult to get
the required force for shots.

The goalkeepers
have a small round magnet in their chest, so they can catch the ball
impressively. Goal kicks are also great fun, as you whack the goalkeeper stick
on the pitch in different ways to produce different types of kick.

Pro-Action
Football production seems almost as confusing as Super Striker production, with
several different sets produced with overlapping dates. They are usually badged
under Parker or MB Games, but the copyright is Hasbro, and they obviously own these
other brands.

The
Standard Parker box sets.

This
was the standard version and is currently available at a car boot sale near you! There are slight variations to
the box lid and layout, and the "now with barriers" edition above
shows that the fence surround was not always included (but it usually is). The
teams are red shirts and black shorts; versus blue shirts with black shorts. The outfield
players come in three different figures, used for defender, midfielder
and attacker, although this doesn't affect how they actually play. The
machine printed detail includes numbers on the backs of the shirts and is very
neat and attractive.

The
goals resemble a strengthened Subbuteo tournament goal, with fitted nets, and a
base that has a back bar and clips that fit it to the pitch. This works quite
well for holding the goal in place. These
goals also appeared in Subbuteo sets for a year or so in the mid 1990s after Hasbro had acquired
Waddingtons.

The version of this set I own is copyright
1993, although the sets lasted much longer than that. In fact, the stock seemed
to exist well into the Michael Owen era (see below). Various exclusive shop
offers were also produced. My local toy shop chain Gamleys, had one such offer a
couple of years ago, but embarrassingly, I can't remember what it was! I think a
free stop watch was included in the set..

2016:- This German version of Pro Action football has been spotted by
regular helper Ashley Hemmings. Although superficially similar to the UK
edition, the box is smaller and deeper. Probably easier to store.

The Deluxe
Parker Version.

This is a more unusual set, and featured an
electronic scoreboard/Grandstand. The stands were two banks of green terracing
which clipped to the front of the black scoreboard around a tunnel entrance to
the pitch. The scoreboard bit of the device wasn't electronic at all. It was
like the Subbuteo boards with names on card that slide in, and two rotating
discs for the scores. The electronic part replicated the sound of the crowd. On
the top of the device were five football shaped buttons. From the left these
appear to be :-

General crowd noise - This button starts a general hum of
crowd noise. There doesn't seem to be an off-button, and so it seems to
warble on forever... or until you take the batteries out. It might have a
set length, but frankly a couple of minutes is all I could stand.

Button 2: Home side score a goal. A big roar of
appreciation.

Button 3: A slightly smaller roar than button 2. For the
away side scoring a goal. Or a near miss. Or the referee falling over...

Button 4: The refs whistle.

Button 5: A big hooter. In real life you hope you don't have
to sit next to the guy with one of these. A joke about sitting next to
a woman with a pair of big hooters is almost (but sadly not quite) beneath this site.....

If you had the crowd noise turned on, then buttons 2-5 blended into
it rather cleverly. However, they also worked without it.

Another feature of the deluxe set were the free kick assistants.
These were just pieces of plastic with a curved ramp at one end, and a place for
the player base at the other. This allowed you to shoot over a defensive wall.
Or it would if you could get enough force on the ball. The other advantage over
the standard set is that one of the teams is a very well printed Brazil (this
was also available in the team range). The other team was blue and white (as
opposed to the usual blue and black).

The MB Games version
(1996)

Another odd version. I picked this up at a car boot
sale, because I though the figures looked different. In fact, this version has
10 different mouldings for the outfield players, which is advertised as a
feature on the box. The teams are painted with white shorts rather than black,
and have a variety of skin/hair colours. The figures are slightly smaller than the usual
Parker ones, and the goals have simple plastic nets. However, these do have bases that clip into the fence
surround, as opposed to the parker version where they clip onto the pitch. This
is an improvement.

The
simple goals and small players lead me to believe that this was an earlier version of Pro Action Football,
but in fact the box is dated 1996, so it appears in the middle of the
Parker era. The picture on the back of the box also shows the usual Parker version
with the black shorted players (but with the simple goals).

The Barcelona Edition (also MB
Games)

This version is apparently only sold in the Barcelona
club shop, and features a team in Barcelona strip and a team in all white ready
for painting. As luck would have it, all white can also represent
arch-rivals Real Madrid of course. Oh what a coincidence! This is another version sold under the MB
games logo, which here appears on its more familiar white box end. I've had a
report that a few alternative boxed Spanish sides turned up in a catalogue surplus shop
in Scotland.

Michael Owen's Pro Action
Football.

This was yet another re-launch of the game, cashing
in on Michael Owen's popularity, but it was the same as the Parker version with
red/black, blue/black figures. These sets seem to be arriving on the boot sale
scene in good numbers, which suggests that they sold well enough...

December
2004: The sets for Christmas 2004 were a five-a-side version in a fold up
case, and a full edition with the addition of another electronic device. I
believe this one gave out nuggets of commentary.

Official England Total Action Football.

October 2006:
The 2006 toy shop catalogues revealed both full size and five-a-side versions
available as official "England" products. The pitch on the full version had the
three lions logo in the centre circle. This set was manufactured under licence
by Vivid Imaginations Ltd, and it benefited from bring
sold in a much smaller box than usual. The teams were the smaller version from
the MB games version above (as were the simple plastic goals). The teams were
described as England vs Opposition, and were in basic colours. England
simply had white shirts and navy shorts, whilst the opposition were almost
Brazil, with yellow shirts, blue shorts and white socks (but no green trim). The
pitch in my set is a bit weird, as the lines and England flag seem to be printed
on the wrong side. (imagine playing on the smooth side of the modern Subbuteo
pitches).

Ideal Total Action Football

July 2015: Here are the latest (I think) versions of Total Action Football.
Over the last 20 years, this game has been much more successful in having a toy
shop presence than Subbuteo. As Subbuteo is owned by a huge toy company, and
Total Action Football has swapped toy labels on a regular basis, I'm not
sure why this is.

Anyway, these two similar looking sets on the Ideal board
games label, also seem to have moved through owners. The plain version (on the
left) is copyright 2009 Toy Brokers, whilst the Championship Edition is from
John Adams Leisure Limited and dated 2012, although the address for both
companies is the same. Both sets state that Total Action Football is a trademark
of Wat Now Ltd.

Once again, the box has shrunk. This is most convenient for
storage. As with the England sets, the game is played on the shiny side of the
pitch. This might make for a better sliding game, but it still looks wrong to
me. The 2009 set opens at the ends, whilst the 2012 version opens from the top
(much better to be honest). Despite the small size, these sets are jammed with
extras. There are plastic risers to help take corners and free kicks, plus a
special shooting base for each team's main striker. This is higher than the
usual bases, and the tension can be tightened. Does any of this work? Well
sometimes! I think I'm too timid to really whack the players, and so often the
ball refuses to leave the striker/riser. If it does work, a rising free kick
over the wall is rather cool though. There are also new diving goalkeepers.
These sound better than they actually are, with the goalkeeper having limited
movement within a rather unwieldy base unit. Sadly, as pointless as Subbuteo's
spring loaded live-action 'keepers....

In the basic 2009 version,
the teams are simply red/white and blue/white, in the small figures used in the
MB and England products. In the Championship Edition, theses small players are
advertised as being in International colours, and you get "England" in
white/blue (royal, rather than navy), and interestingly "Spain" in red and blue.
Another nice alternate team if you are collecting these things.

Oh, and the Championship Edition also features a really small, and very cheap
looking Cup.

Extra Teams.

A few extra teams were
produced for the Parker version of Pro-Action football, and were sold in
attractive display boxes. These included the playing figures, but not the bases.
A sheet in the box set advertised the teams available,
which were as follows.

Spain

England

Italy

Germany

Greece

Brazil

Holland

France

Plus a "paint your own" team.

In addition, there was a second set of English teams produced,
which sadly do not appear to be properly catalogued anywhere. These include the
Liverpool team shown at the top of this section, which features the "Adidas"
slashes of the mid 1990s. Teams seen so far include...

Arsenal

Aston Villa

Liverpool

Tottenham Hotspur

December 2012: I can now illustrate a few more of the Pro
Action Teams. Added to the Holland at the top of the section, we have Spain,
England, Italy, Brazil and France. In addition to the Liverpool, we have Arsenal
and Spurs.

October 2014: Two more Pro Action teams to enjoy.
Illustrated are Germany from the original International selection, and Aston
Villa from the Premiership range.
January 2016: The final international team is illustrated. Greece have the
simplest kit in the range, being all blue with white sock tops.

MY Soccer World Football Games.

A cheap "made in China" version of Striker, with a
card pitch, and a ball that isn't round. Despite the cheapness, the figures were
actually nicely detailed, and had printed details.

The Penalty shoot out version (originally priced at a bargain
£1.99) featured one player from each side, a goalkeeper, a scoreboard and a
tiny trophy, but I've also seen a full eleven-a-side version (otherwise I
wouldn't have bothered to include it). Obviously, the
problem with a card pitch is that a standard round ball would just roll off. So the
solution here is that the ball isn't round!

This is not to be confused with the other Soccer World game,
which had static players on springs, involved bouncing a ball-bearing around a
wobbly plastic pitch, and was immensely stupid.

I've reproduced the blurb from the front of the box
because it shows such a big Subbuteo influence. The game is a five-a-side junior
affair, with players who look like giant lego figures. The outfield bases have a
rolling action, so the play is nearer Subbuteo than Super Striker. Thanks to
Matt Johnstone for the pictures, and to his kids for modelling the set :-)

Nestlé Euro 2004 players.

Various football figures have found their way into cereal
packets down the years, and several ropey action versions have appeared with
some form of kicking leg action. However, these guys are a cut above the norm.
There were three different outfielders in eight different colour schemes. As
usual nowadays, these went the "unofficial" route but kits similar to Portugal, Spain
and England were all produced. In addition there was also a goalkeeper figure in
a yellow or green jersey, making twenty-four variations to look for. That's a
lot of Shreddies I can tell you.

Okay, so this is not a full game or anything, but I thought I'd give these guys a
mention as they really do play quite a useful game using Striker equipment. I
also have a wants list :-)

I'm sure there must be more decent football games out there. I
probably own a few more than this! So watch this space for more games. .